8/7/2019 Solutions for America: The Entitlement Crisis (Social
Security)
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Solutions for America is a product of Heritages Leadership for
America campaign. Our mission is to formulate and promote
conservative public policibased on the principles of free
enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional
American values, and a strong national defense.
a government contribution to purchase the health insur-
ance that best meets their needs. The contribution, or
premium assistance, would be capped but reviewed
periodically. An individuals contribution would be adjusted
according to income and underlying medical condition.
Fix Medicaid.The current system is unaffordable,
imposes huge costs and unfunded mandates on states,
and is poorly suited to the needs of patients or doctors.
Healthier families should be allowed into private health
insurance with their share of Medicaid money. We need
patient-centered care to give the disabled, elderly, and
their families a say in the care and services they receive.
Medicaids long-term care benefit must be transformed
from an open-ended entitlement to an insurance-based
model of private coverage as part of a general strategy to
boost long-term care insurance.
Fix Social Security. To boost savings, we need to
include a system of voluntary personal accounts within
Social Security. The system as a whole should be made
solvent by transforming the remainder of Social Security
to real insurance, focusing benefits on those who really
need them during retirement while strengthening the
safety net for poorer retirees. As Americans live longer
productive lives, the retirement age should be raised and
indexed to future increases in longevity. Incentives suchas
removing payroll taxes for workers over the retirement
age should accompany these changes. Another impor-
tant step is to improve the indexation of past earnings
used to calculate Social Security benefits and establish-
ing a more realistic cost-of-living adjustment that better
reflects changes in a retirees cost of living.
Increase Retirement Savings. Automatic enrollment,
whereby workers are automatically enrolled in employer-
sponsored retirement savings but allowed to opt out,
should be expanded, and automatic IRA, a simple payroll
deduction system that small businesses would offer toemployees,
should be created. Workers should be en-
couraged to include annuity-like products, which ensure
that they will not outlive their savings, in their
retirement
plans.
If future taxes are held at the historical average, spending on
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will consumeall revenues by
2052. Because entitlement spending is funded on autopilot, no
revenue will be left to pay for othergovernment spending, including
constitutional functions such as defense.
Entitlements Will Consume All Tax Revenues by 2052
Medicare
Medicaid
SocialSecurity
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Entitlements Will Consume All Tax Revenues by 2052
